Ex-Australian PM issues stark migration warning to Britain: 'Be prepared to upset the French!'

The former Prime Minister of Australia has warned the Labour Government that if they are "not prepared to upset the French", they are "not protecting their sovereignty".

Speaking to GB News about Britain's surging migrant crisis, Tony Abbott declared that the UK must take small boat crossings into their own hands and "physically stop the boats".

The former leader pointed to successive British Governments' failed promises over the past five or six years to end small boat arrivals, with efforts consistently blocked by legal challenges citing the ECHR.

He said: "Now there is a way forward and that's to leave the ECHR, but for all sorts of reasons no Government has been prepared to take that step.

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"So in the end, we need the politicians to take charge. But for that to happen, we need politicians who are prepared to take responsibility as opposed to saying one thing, and then when the going gets tough, hiding behind a judge, a commission, a bureaucrat or a so-called expert."

Mr Abbott contended that ending the people smuggling trade represents the truly compassionate approach to the crisis.

He argued: "First of all, you've got to state what is obviously true, that as long as you have illegal migration by boat, you will have deaths at sea. Tens of them, hundreds of them, over time thousands of them.

"Probably one or two per cent of the people who come illegally by boat or seek to come illegally by boat end up perishing because their boats sink, something happens.

"So the really humane thing to do is to stop the people smuggling trade, and then you've just got to effectively stop it now."

Mr Abbott stressed: "Frankly, you don't stop it by putting people into detention centres, although that is sometimes necessary.

"You stop it by physically stopping the boats, and if needs be tackling the problem at source, which is in some of the original countries of these people are and along the various transit routes."

The ex-PM compared the methods used by the UK to that of Australia, explaining how they successfully managed to curb illegal migration crossings.

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He told GB News: "We kept them housed on a mothership until, on a suitable night, we took them to within about 15 miles of Indonesian waters, put them into a big orange life raft with just enough fuel to get back and we said, 'off you go'.

"And once they had worked out that paying $15,000 to a people smuggler was only going to get them a return ticket to Java, the people smuggling trade stopped within a few weeks."

Mr Abbott made clear to the Labour Government that unless they are prepared to "upset their neighbours", they "cannot defend sovereignty".

He said: "That's the sort of thing that Britain has to do in the English Channel. Now, the French won't like it, but frankly, the French are never going to stop it.

"And if you are not prepared to upset your neighbours, you are not prepared to defend your country's sovereignty."

Mr Abbott warned of an "invasion" of illegal migration if the UK does not get small boat crossings under control.

He concluded: "This is what I'm afraid an effective British Government needs to do.

"It needs to be prepared to upset the French, because the French on this, on this issue at least, are no friend of Britain, and it needs to be prepared to take direct action.

"Otherwise the boats will keep coming, people will keep drowning, hotels will keep filling up, and ultimately Britain will remain subject to what amounts to a peaceful invasion."

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